1. Field
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to measuring optical fibers, and, in particular, to measuring spontaneous emission produced in an optical fiber.
2. Information
An optical fiber may comprise a flexible, transparent fiber made of any of a number of materials, such as glass or plastic. An optical fiber may function as a waveguide, or “light pipe”, to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber, for example. An optical fiber may include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with a lower index of refraction. Light may be kept in an optical fiber by total internal reflection or by a process involving a photonic bandgap of a photonic crystal optical fiber, thus providing a mechanism for the optical fiber to act as a waveguide. Optical fibers that support multiple propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those that support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF).
Optical fibers may be used as optical sources or optical amplifiers, in which case gain-producing dopants, such as rare-earth ions, for example, may be incorporated into the structure of the optical fibers. Performance of such optical sources or optical amplifiers may depend, at least in part, upon spatial distribution of gain-producing dopants or gain efficiency of the dopants.